Welcome Fabric Fans!

I know that you have been waiting with bated breath for my Monday blog, but due to the fact that Monday was President’s day, I took the day off. Also, I am enjoying the President’s Week break with my wife and kids who are off from school. Two quick things: It was almost exactly two years ago to the date that we Fortunoffs were diligently working to close the purchase of FreeSpirit Fabrics! Time flies! Thanks for your support. Next week I will be blogging about the mills we use overseas. I will answer a lot of the questions that I get about labor laws, recycling and care for the…

Oh my! My terrific big brother is 50 years young today. This past Friday night Greg and his wife threw an intimate party at a restaurant in New York City for family and some college friends. It was truly perfect. An amazing evening and an amazing celebration for one of the most important and influential people in my life. Aside from going to school together as kids and camp and so much more, did you know that Greg and I worked together before we both united at Jaftex Corp.? It’s true. We worked together trading stocks for around 6 or 7 years. During that time, I can’t begin to tell…

This is continued from last week’s blog post.…and this is the part that you don’t want to miss especially if you are a shop owner. So… what are my observations after seeing so many quilt shops?   What did I like and what didn’t I like?  Which is my favorite store?  Would I do it again?   Who would I give special recognition to? There are some super nice shop owners/employees out there.  If they didn’t know about the challenge, they were interested in hearing about it.  They made me feel welcome in their shop and they seemed to genuinely care about the customer.  And then, there were the others!  There aren’t…

We continue from last week’s blog post which is a recap of observations from the winner of the #ScottSentMe2019 challenge. We left home on October 12 and the plan was to stop at a few shops that were open in CT on Sunday, October 13.  I was still a bit hesitant, but figured Colchester Mill Fabrics would make a good first stop as I had already seen postings from there and I knew they were supporting the challenge.  Cheryl, the owner, gave us a very warm greeting as soon as we entered… and started telling us about the store… and I think I was rude and missed half of it after…

Happy Monday to all. I am so excited about the blog posts for the next three weeks. The best part is that I didn’t have to write them which works great for lazy me. The other great thing is that they are so insightful and interesting to hear especially from someone who isn’t a supplier or a shop owner. This is just raw observation from an ordinary consumer with a lot of motivation to see a lot of quilt shops and no pre-existing opinions. With that, over the next 3 weeks, I am going to share with you a blog post from Catherine Brown who won the #ScottSentMe2019 Challenge after…

As you may or may not have heard me mention, my family company, Jaftex Corp. turns 90 years old this year. Currently, we have the third and fourth generations at the helm. This is a huge feat and quite frankly, I don’t know if any Fabric Fortunoff ever anticipated this. Moreover, no one can predict how much longer we will be in business. With the fifth generation on deck though, the prospects are promising. What I want to do in this blog post is give you a little low down of what has been going on over the last 90 years and how it all began. For starters, Jacob A.…

One great thing that I learned from attending law school was that you always need to look at situations from all angles.  As much as I hated law school, I learned a ton of skills and how to think differently than most others who haven’t attended law school. With that, starting in 2020, I urge you to always look at things from all angles when making big decisions in business or life.   Don’t be closed minded and think that your way is the only way and always the right one.  That is a foolish path to follow and one that is going to limit your growth. When a situation arises,…

As we closeout 2019, I simply want to say this: THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I understand that there are lots of other things that you can be doing, but you have chosen to follow me and the Jaftex companies (A.E. Nathan, Blank Quilting, FreeSpirit Fabrics, Henry Glass Fabrics, Studioe Fabrics, 3 Wishes & Fabric Editions) on this crazy fabric journey. You have no idea of how appreciative I am for your participation and contributions to the Jaftex social being and existence. I am only as good as my fans and followers. So again, I say, thank you so much for helping me get to where I am today,…

Dear Mr. President, I am the fourth generation owner of a nearly 90 year old textile company that sells fabrics to mom and pop quilt shops in the United States. We cater to the quilting and sewing industry. Our fifth generation family members are a plenty and we are excited about continuing our American dream of having a multi-generational family owned company. As the discussion of the fifth generation joining the business in the future was so easily written in the space above, I do have major concerns about the future of my business and a great American past time, namely sewing and quilting. Skipping right to the chase as…

Last week, I traveled to the Carolinas for what I like to call the southern hospitality Jaftex Christmas party tour. Tuesday, team FreeSpirit Fabrics had a lovely dinner in Charlotte, N.C. Wednesday in Greenville, S.C. there was a luncheon for the Fabric Editions team, the FreeSpirit customer service reps and the FreeSpirit/Jaftex credit team. Thursday was the G&S Warehouse party in Seneca, S.C. for our forty plus employees. Needless to say, I covered a lot of ground on the three day celebration. In addition, let’s just say my clothing is starting to get tighter…..a lot tighter. On the trip home, I got to thinking about where my company is now…